Fountains in the Way

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Just over a year ago, my home was broken into. On that same day, I got a positive pregnancy test. One week later my stepdad died. Three weeks after that, plagued with restless leg syndrome all night long, I did my pregnancy labs early and was diagnosed with something called alloimmunization. Life was so overwhelming, that I couldn’t even process each event as it happened. As the dust began to settle on our new life, my husband and I began to talk about how we could create peace out of such destructive chaos. We had committed to paying off debt, but the plane tickets, and life stress had put us a month behind already. We looked around and knew.

We had to sell our house.

We knew it wasn’t going to be easy, but we believed that peaceful living did not mean easy living.

Not because financially we wouldn’t make it, but because it was giving us anything but peace. A quaint 1912 farmhouse that had been redone and DIYed more than a house probably should have to bear, there was always a looming expense. That, mixed with the drug house two doors down, the break in, and no backyard to speak of, made us stop and pray, asking God for wisdom, for a life of peace, and to show us the way.

And less than three months later, we had a binding offer. We purged our belongings and moved into a quiet apartment with a toddler and 3 months away from baby number 2 making her appearance.

Yet we were overjoyed to do it, filled with so much peace.

Turns out to our surprise, our pursuit of peace itself was bringing peace into our lives, before the fruition of our effort, before the house, before the freedom. Peace was found “in between.”

There are many more steps to this story, but through that process, I began to recognize what a life of peace looked like. It didn’t look like security, like having the best or the most, it didn’t look like everyone understanding the sacrifices we were making, and making sure they knew how lucky or privileged they were.

It looked like a quiet night. It looked like knowing I was where God wanted me to be. It looked like giving up the things I didn’t need and didn’t serve my purpose. It looked like hope for dreams in the future, and pursuing them with open hands.

I didn’t know how long I would be in that apartment, but ai wasn’t worried about it.

Because I’d found peace. It was in submitting and opening up what I wanted to be filled with His plans, which were much better than I could ever ask or think.

In the middle of this search for peaceful living, I had to downsize, reorganize, and thoughtfully consider what was necessary and what was not with two adults, a toddler, and a newborn baby. Here’s some of my tips, tricks and products I used to make our apartment a home.

Apartment Hacks:

My toddler needed light blocked from the window, and we certainly didn’t want to screw in curtain rods. These temporary hooks kept the curtain close to the window to block out the light using his blackout curtain.

Organization:

Not just for apartment life, but super helpful for small spaces, these clear organization drawers allowed me to downsize makeup and hair accessories, have my go to wellness items nearby, and be able to see where to find what I was looking for.

Newborn life:

For bringing a baby home to a tighter space, I highly recommend a mini crib! The Delta Children’s Mia folding mini crib was perfect from the first night at home in the apartment and far beyond. Rather than using a bassinet and then a crib, I rolled it into one item that could still fit into our room (which served as my husbands work from home office, our bedroom, and the nursery) . It was also very affordable compared to most cute cribs, and much cheaper than buying both a bassinet and a crib.

Currently, the MIA folding crib is low in stock but they have an even more affordable version here and a cuter but more expensive mini crib here. It also doesn’t fold up like the Mia does!

I’ll come back with more apartment, organizational, and downsizing tips later, but for now, I just wanted to list some of my favorites.

If you’ve ever sought peace and found it, I’d love to hear about it! What steps did you take to seek peace in your everyday life? What small step could you take today to change your life next year?